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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22761010">Work Place Conflict</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dlxm950/pseuds/Dlxm950'>Dlxm950</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DCU, DCU (Comics), Injustice: Gods Among Us, Wonder Woman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Divorce, Emotional Hurt, Emotional strength, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Historical References, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Marriage, Neglect, Past Rape/Non-con, Same-Sex Marriage, Standing Up For Your Self, Strength, Unhealthy Relationships, new world order</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:48:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,046</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22761010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dlxm950/pseuds/Dlxm950</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The new world order has arrived and Maria can't reconcile her relationship with the actions of her wife.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Diana (Wonder Woman)/Original Female Character(s), Diana (Wonder Woman)/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>84</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Work Place Conflict</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>‘Peace in our time’ that's what Neville Chamberlain said when he returned from signing a peace treaty with Hitler. He signed away the lives of every Jew and person deemed inferior by the Nazi’s, but he didn’t know that at the time, how could he? To him it was a simple equation, 3.65 million people for what he perceived to be eternal peace in Europe. We look at it with hindsight and say ‘how could he have been so foolish? There was no way Hitler was ever going to just stop with the Sudetenland’ but we weren't there. Hindsight makes fools of all those who lived before that moment without taking into consideration that just because we can look into the past doesn’t mean those in the past can look into the future. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maria sighs. It's too early in the morning for this shit.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’s been deliberating this point for the better part of two weeks. Back and forth in her own brain watching as Superman and his Legion of cronies butchered their way across the planet in the name of peace. ‘Would you be willing to sacrifice 3.65 million people for the security of 8 and a half billion others?’ </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t want to think about it. All the blood spilled, lives lost, screams echoing in the night. The document still sits on her desk though, waiting for her signature, she’d told Wonder Woman she would sign it, at the time it had been a lie. Telling the love of her life whatever she wanted to hear so she’d leave. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maria doesn’t know what will happen if she tells her wife no. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Diana in her memories seems so different from the one flying outside. All those years ago in France, dancing, laughing, smiling. They’d been happy and in love. Like a dream come true she’d been swept off her feet and into the arms of her knight in shining armour. The following decades had been the best in her life. Nights of passion, strong arms against her, inside her, attentive, warm, and gentle. Over half a century of waking up to the warmest smile and the brightest heart. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wonder Woman has none of that. They no longer dance or laugh or smile. Her knight in shining armour revealed for the monster she had been underneath the entire time. No longer were there nights filled with passion and love, no, now Wonder Woman took what she wanted. Those strong arms against her, inside her, demanding, cold, and harsh. Two weeks of waking up alone and fearful. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It seems more like a nightmare than a dream.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“One day you will wake up and realize that the immortality our father has given you is not a blessing but a curse. You will wake up one morning, look to your right, and see that the hero you have invited into your bed is nothing more than one of the monsters she claims to be trying to stop.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ares had told her that, during one of his many attempts to lure Diana into a fight, he’d whispered it right into her ear just before her wife had come crashing through the roof and pummeled him into the ground. She hadn’t given it much credence at the time, she had been far too busy basking in the love of her wife, but now...now she wished she had listened more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The scotch burns as she drinks it. Drying her throat and igniting her veins with fire. She likes to think that it's just another precaution, another way of telling Wonder Woman no without having to say it, but that would be a lie. She’s drinking it because it hurts, because if she drinks it she knows her inhibitions will lower and she won’t have to think when Wonder Woman thrusts a hand down her pants without asking. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She takes another sip.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It seems so strange, to look out through the oval office windows, to look out at the rose garden like all her predecessors had. Whereas they had done so as the strong leaders of the worlds strongest power she did so now as the first woman elected for a cowed country. She’d won in a landslide, making her speeches with the League behind her, the opposition stood no chance at all. She’d been swept up in it too, the excitement of it all, the final true declaration of world peace. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The executive order still sits on her desk. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She supposes there's no escaping it. She’s made her choice. With a heavy sigh and great amounts of trepidation she pulls out the shredder. She won’t/can’t sign it. This is her stand. Her last act of defiance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yet before she can turn it on there's a wooshe behind her and she freezes. A warm hand settles on her hip as the other comes to rest on the hand holding the order above the shredder.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing, beloved?” Wonder Woman asks softly against her ear. And she has to call her Wonder Woman because she refuses to think that this monster is the same woman she married. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t want to tell the truth. Every fibber of her being shakes with fear at the thought of it but she’s been caught red handed. So finally she speaks slowly at first but with growing confidence because even though she’s speaking to Wonder Woman she knows that deep down Diana is still there. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I...I can’t do it, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>won’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> do it. What you're asking me to sign, it's wrong.” She says out loud and with the alcohol flowing through her system she sounds a lot more confident than she feels.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The hands on her body tighten, almost to a painful degree, as she feels a heavy breath settle against her neck. The document is slowly forced from her fingers and flutters down into the shredder below, the order ripping into a million pieces as the machine roars to life before calming back down. She can’t believe it, she’s watched it happen but it doesn’t quite register in her brain, at least not until she’s nudged to turn around. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When she is finally turned to fully face her wife she doesn’t meet her eyes. Can’t. With a start she realizes she’s afraid, she’s honest to god afraid, it runs up her spine like lightning. Her breath quickens and her heart thunders against her chest. Two hands grab her own and rest in her lap before they begin to rise, her eyes move with them, then their eyes meet. Her bright baby blues glow against the yellow light of her lamps, a sharp contrast to Maria's own dark purple, nearly black as she tries to hide them in the dark.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, none of that, what is wrong with my love? Why does my heart look at me so?” Wonder Woman asks her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t do it Diana, I can’t sentence all those people to death.” She tells her wife and it's amazing how much weight seems to fall from her shoulder now that it's out in the open. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She still flinches though, as her wife raises a hand, but where she expects anger some form of violence the only thing that happens in the soft rubbing of Diana's palm against her cheek. Soft and comforting in a way her wife hasn’t been in what feels like forever. She doesn’t realize until she sees it on her wife's hand that she’s crying.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shh...shhh beloved, it's okay, it's okay. You are so strong, so strong, thank you for telling me.” Diana says so softly and with such honest caring words. Maria breaks into sobs, she can’t help it, it's all too much. Somewhere in her brain she recognizes that she’s babbling, apologies and cries for forgiveness falling from her lips, but the rest of her brain doesn’t care because Diana is here, her wife is </span>
  <em>
    <span>here</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and she’s holding her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eventually her heartbeat calms and her breathing evens out, the tears stop falling, and her babbling turns into simple hiccups. Diana is there the entire time, holding and soothing her, offering words of comfort. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you better now?” Diana asks her. She nods quickly in response before leaning forward for a kiss. Diana returns it, a short simple kiss, but it means the world.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Diana I...I can’t do it.” Maria repeats, calmer this time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That is fine beloved. I think it is wonderful that you cannot do it. It proves to me just how pure your heart is that you would look for any other solution than death. Unfortunately some are not deserving of it, but put this behind you for now, focus on me.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No Diana, the killing, the </span>
  <em>
    <span>murder</span>
  </em>
  <span>, it has to stop.” Maria tells her as she pushes her wife away. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Diana looks at her strangely for a moment, like she can’t believe Maria would push her away, before her face hardens.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It must be done, these villains and criminals cannot be trusted, the only solution now is their death.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No! I don’t believe that and I don’t believe for a second that the woman I love would believe it either.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The words sit heavy between them. Heavy and loaded, like a gun, and Diana sets it off with a bang. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean by that?” Diana asks her coldly, no not Diana, Wonder Woman.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I mean that if you continue down this path I...I can’t follow you, I won’t follow you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wonder Woman freezes at her words. Maria can see the cogs spinning in her brain as her wife tries to find a solution. Maria stops her though because Wonder Woman has done this before, when Maria has voiced her concerns, she pauses to think before luling her back with promises of love and change. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I...I want a divorce.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’s said it finally. After weeks of abuse and neglect, she’s said it, and it feels good. For the first time in a long time she feels some semblance of power returns to her. Wonder Woman though, Wonder Woman looks absolutely furious, and for a brief moment Maria fears she may actually strike at her. So when the super spins on her heel and marches right up to Maria she accepts that this may be it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately what happens next is nearly a thousand times worse. Wonder Woman grabs at her clothes and just starts ripping them off. Maria tries to fight back, calling out for her wife to stop, but they fall on deaf ears. She stripped by force to her underwear before her wife grabs the pile of shredded clothing and begins to desperately search through it. Maria wants to call out and demand her wife stop but when her wife gives a loud cry of anger she thinks better of it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“When did he speak to you?!” Wonder Woman demands angrily. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maria doesn’t have to ask who she means. Her wife's new found hatred for Batman is nothing she didn’t already know. The fact that her wife thinks she would stoop that low however ignites a fire she didn’t know she had. The fact that her wife is trying to pin their failing marriage on Batman, the shame of being stripped in this way, the alcohol in her system, it puts one foot in front of the other before she delivers a hard slap to her wifes face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Time seems to stand still as her wife stumbles back and grabs at her stinging and red cheek. Her face awash with surprise and hurt. Maria finds that it feels good, despite the stinging in her hand and the feeling of obvious broken bones, she feels </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t say anything else. She just grabs the extra pair of clothing she keeps around in case of emergency, pulls the ring from her finger, and marches towards the door. Wonder Woman doesn’t try to stop her, whether she was still recovering from the slap or letting her go, Maria doesn’t care. She refuses to be another Neville Chamberlain, duped by evil into naivety, she won’t be the one to sacrifice millions for billions more. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The last sound in the room is her ring clattering to the ground and the soft click of the door. </span>
</p>
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